The Chevy Volt is outselling the Nissan LEAF -- but not by much. (Source: Autoblog (LEAF), GM (Volt))

EV hopes are weighed down by miserable sales

There
certainly seems to be some members of the American public who
are enthusiastic about alternative powertrain vehicles. In February,
hybrid auto sales soared 39 percent to reach approximately
23.3k units. Leading the pack was the veteran Toyota Prius.

But amid that optimistic figure was a bit of not-so-happy news for a couple
major automakers. General Motors only managed to sell 281 Chevy Volts in February, down from 321
in January. And worse yet, the Nissan
LEAF only sold 67 units in the month of February.

To date the Volt has outsold the LEAF, 928 units to 173. Neither number
looks very promising, at face value at least.

For GM, the issue may lie partially on the supply side. Dealers are trying to gouge on prices of the scarce
Volts, but ultimately these tactics may backfire. We saw several eBay
auctions (which aren't free, mind you) end with no buyers. In each case,
dealers were trying to charge several thousand dollars over the MSRP -- and
customers weren't buying.

If GM can pump up its supply, like it's promising, the price may drop to the
MSRP and sales may pick up.

With Nissan, the problem and potential solution is likely different.
Arguably Nissan's sales are the bigger disappointment, as the company was
promising to beat GM in production volume and sales.
However, it is currently failing on those fronts, by all appearances. One
major issue may be limited distribution. In the U.S., the LEAF only launched
in a handful of markets such as California and New York.

Still it's a bit of a mystery how the far-cheaper LEAF has fared so much worse
than the Volt. One possibility is that drivers are scared of not having a backup gas engine (which the
Volt has). At the very least, expanding sales to most of the rest of the
country should help the LEAF catch up -- if only a bit.

To add insult to injury, Britain has temporarily banned LEAF
vehicles from being sold. The LEAF contains a noisy backup warning sound
to warn pedestrians -- a necessity, given the vehicle's relatively quiet
motors. But apparently that warning violates British noise laws, which
prohibits loud noises between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Where recent U.S. laws and federal guidelines require these
noises, Nissan is having to race to remove them in Britain.
Rather than making the noises timing dependent, Nissan is attempting a
cruder fix -- removing them entirely. States the company, "The
audible system on the LEAF did not allow for [a timing dependent fix], so the
beeping sound is being removed entirely before the cars can be driven on roads
in [Britain]."

As a result there's a "slight delay" in British sales while the
vehicle's firmware is modified in the factory in order to convince Britain to
lift the sales ban.

One company that is likely smiling at the sales numbers is Ford. A
late-comer to the EV game, Ford will release a plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) next year, and
a battery-electric vehicle the year after
that. It's clear that even though Ford is coming in a year behind GM and
Nissan, that there's plenty of room for improvement in the nascent field.

Another company that is likely pretty satisfied about the news is Tesla Motor
Company. Tesla's Roadster sales pace looks pretty impressive
given the higher sticker, when compared to the LEAF. Dramatic price
difference aside, one key difference may be looks. In an era where the
likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna reign atop pop charts, perhaps the LEAF's
bulbous form is a bit too ungainly for a superficial public to bite on.
The sexy curves of a Roadster 2.5 EV or a Fisker Karma might be a little bit more
pleasant EV pill to swallow, assuming you can afford it.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

So in your communist mind they should cut the supply of cars that are selling well to push cars that arent? Do you not comprehend supply and demand at all? Supply goes up and demand stays the same ... price goes down. Supply stays the same and demand goes up Price goes up. If you want the price to go down on these POS EVs they will have to supply more of them first then when they dont sell the price will become more attractive near the end of the year when the next years models come out. Its like any new technology there's a price premium to be paid for early adopters. More people would put up with the volt if it were sub 15 or 20k... but till that day they wont sell well.

Luxury and fun are relative concepts. What you might call luxurious I might call bland. What you might call fun I might call dangerously loose in the corners... its all relative. You cant claim something is amazing and put everyone else down for not feeling the same way you do just because you enjoy something. I have a suggestion...why not drive a bently continental GT then drive a bugatti veyron (SP?) then drive a volt and then talk about luxury and fun to drive. Your entire post reads like you work for either GM or the federal government.

You cant assume that half of your driving will be electric with the volt unless you live and work less than 40 miles apart and never drive anywhere else without recharging the battery.

Instead of a high priced toyota lets compare it to an all gasoline powered saturn. I drive a saturn ION that gets 35mpg and it cost me 13,100 to buy. with gas at 3.50/gal I can fill its 10gal tank for 35 bucks. that 10 gal will last me a week worth of driving back and forth to my 2 jobs (working 2 jobs to buy a house not gas) which amounts to ~65mi/day. 35*52=$1820/yr in gas (again assuming gas stayed at 3.50 for this entire year... which it wont. the volt costs what 40k... pre government "incentives"? so 40k-13k = 27,000 bucks worth of gas I can buy before I even come close to what your volt cost. at 1800/yr in gas and I can drive for 15 YEARS before I come close to the cost of your POS Hybrid.

Oh and also dont forget GM is still bankrupt... they are pushing a 40,000 dollar car that they arent even making a profit on in lieu of selling cars that they can make a profit on. I dont wanna hear that bs about they paid off their loan... they paid their first loan with money from the porkulus bill... so they paid us back with money we lent them... screw you GM!

And lastly you know what happens to batteries when they get cold (or hot) right? They lose efficiency... up to 50% efficiency in fact. So if the temp drops to lets say -10F your 40mi electric range will drop to about 20miles... enjoy your overpriced lawn ornament.